As to the National Assembly which represented only the middle class and people, he regarded it with contempt.
"Why, it was from the middle class," he said, "that the oppressors of the people were drawn.

It is they who were farmers-general, collectors, and officials of all kinds.

It is they who ground down the nation and enriched themselves with the spoil.

It is not the nobles who dirtied their hands with money wrung from the poor.
By all means let the middle class have a share in the government; but it is not a share they desire.

The clergy are to have no voice; the nobility are to have no voice; the king himself is to be a cipher.